Nice! Glad you like it Truth be told I was skeptical that people would like it, but I'm glad I was wrong.
It felt almost like an intermittent song from a pirate movie. One you might hear between scenes in a film with lots of ale clinking and swinging from ropes. I would love to have some additional similar tracks for one of the future DLCs. In particular, I thought a good place to have some kind of shipboard atmospheric track or sound effects would be during the storm events on the overworld map.
All around very good job with the music this go around, it is a massive improvement over the first's soundtrack (which was very repetitive in it's scope sad to say). I would like to echo the sentiments from another user about there needing to be a few areas that should have had unique soundtracks (such as the bathhouse). It might seem like a waste from a development point of view, but one thing that has always stood out to me in games that have become all time favorites is those areas where you get exclusive chills from epic music you've not heard anywhere else in the game. Some very good examples of this type can be found on late SNES early N64 video games. One of my all-time favorite games is Mario RPG (it is the first RPG I ever played to fruition back when I was 10). One of the things that still sticks with me about that game is some of the unique soundtracks for certain areas, from those with a sense of urgency to whimsy. While most areas still use the main soundtrack/themes.
Some other good examples of this can be found in Ocarina of Time, though not exactly an rpg they did well with the idea of "unique" tracks to select areas which make them stand out and help one reimagine those places decades later.
Just something for your consideration.
Thank you for that @Excerpt. Glad you liked it. The scope of the game and the amount of work required meant we had to de-prioritize certain plans, and the bathhouse was one of them unfortunately. I agree with you though and I also would have liked to do something unique for this area.
As an alternative, what if I just persist the music from the exterior into the interior? It might be more tonally fitting than the inn music.
I like that idea of changing the music to the exterior music, I think it'd be more fitting personally. But I don't presume to speak for everyone.
I will tell you this though. I would be willing to pay for an additional music DLC if it was of the appropriate caliber, don't know if you guys have ever thought of commissioning work based on that premise or not. In particular something along the lines of customizable and/or unique battle/dialogue music based on class/reputation/disposition.
Overall well done, and I really love and appreciate seeing the Developers interacting so much on the forums here with players/customers. It is an unusual and refreshing thing in the current age of game development.
My pleasure really. We make these games for you guys, and it's important that we talk! I kind of agree about the bathhouse music. I'll make the change.
Hey, just wanna say, you did a really great job at polishing your game. Just found 2 bugs, as I said - glad you delayed a month even though I was upset bout' it at first lol.
And well...the rest of my kinda review is on front but .....I sort of really want to repeat this; Why no evil companions? XD I get that 100% evil, isn't exactly fitting since it's all different shades of grey, but what I mean is; Maybe an aggressive, yet direct and honest bloodthirsty dumb barbarian? Or a poor, envious skaen priest companion? Would you consider making such a companion in PoE 3 perhaps? :D
Because, right now, they're all very good natured or at the very least neutral. When I was trying to play the way I wanted to play, everyone was hating on me. XDDD *shocker*

Fallout 3 and Skyrim (without mods) are decent Bethesda games. Decent. With mods? Fantastic, because it has a really large community of people who will patch and polish their game for free....
Honestly though, I preferred all the Fallout games Bethesda DID NOT make; Fallout 1, 2 and New Vegas.
This is all that needs to be said about Fallout:
I see what you did there....approved.

Fallout 3 and Skyrim (without mods) are decent Bethesda games. Decent. With mods? Fantastic, because it has a really large community of people who will patch and polish their game for free....
Honestly though, I preferred all the Fallout games Bethesda DID NOT make; Fallout 1, 2 and New Vegas.

TBH....I never could get into Morrowind. I played all *the best* and *kinda best* RPG's out there but....Morrowind? I really disliked the 'dialogue' system. Which was a shame! The music was awesome and I also enjoyed some other features but....yeah. That dialogue was a game-breaker for me. :/ (Unlike many other games, I didn't play Morrowind as a kid. If I would, my opinion could have been different.)

Yeah, not a fan of the new level up music. The old level up/character creation music is the one track I wish they would've brought back from PoE 1
This track was great. Subtle yet powerful.
Yeah. I loved this soundtrack too! :D

Yeah, it wasn't something that made my ears bleed, but it didn't really add anything positive either. The ambient tracks are great for the most part, though!
Need to mod this bad boy in:
Regarding the Arcanum OST, it was a bold choice to compose the entire soundtrack for a string quartet. It's original but also kind of limiting because you can only do so much with a string quartet. How well that worked for the game I don't know, but it surely is an interesting approach.
I BG (Or rather - BG2), I love Shadow of Amm main theme best!

Some of my own favourite music comes from Arcanum;
It's all pretty heavy on the violin, and is somewhat depressing, though hopeful. Just like the game itself. It's dark, sexist, racist and you start of as a nobody. Damn....I really do love that game. Ain't no other taking up the Num 1. spot any time soon!
I love sad violins
Did you finish a 'judge' school in the last 5 minutes? Cuz'....uhh......you be...judging? And...stuff.....*sighs and crossed out another failed comeback joke*
No, i mean, i genuinely like sad violins.
Ah, okay. ^^ In that case; Me too ! :D

Some of my own favourite music comes from Arcanum;
It's all pretty heavy on the violin, and is somewhat depressing, though hopeful. Just like the game itself. It's dark, sexist, racist and you start of as a nobody. Damn....I really do love that game. Ain't no other taking up the Num 1. spot any time soon!
I love sad violins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdofmoYcJNE
Did you finish a 'judge' school in the last 5 minutes? Cuz'....uhh......you be...judging? And...stuff.....*sighs and crossed out another failed comeback joke*

Some of my own favourite music comes from Arcanum;
It's all pretty heavy on the violin, and is somewhat depressing, though hopeful. Just like the game itself. It's dark, sexist, racist and you start of as a nobody. Damn....I really do love that game. Ain't no other taking up the Num 1. spot any time soon!

The music is a bit of a mixed bag in general. While most of the ambient tracks are decent (other than the ones copy-pasted from PoE1), the combat music is pretty underwhelming, like this one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EHwOgHlub4
It's pretty dull, repetitive, and lacking energy. 0:59 is just funny; it stays on that chord forever. All of the combat tracks are pretty meh to be honest.
Come to think of it, I didn't enjoy the combat music either. Though, I didn't like the one in the first game either. Combat music, I mean. It wasn't really *bad*, just not up to standers.

Pros:
- Writing. (Includes: Companion writing, stories, NPC's etc.)
Some people call the writing 'vague' and 'too much', but it's actually EXACTLY what I love. Very creative, immersive with a pinch of mystery to it. Anyone else who says it's written like a fanfiction (steam review), should seriously read some actual fanfiction. Because let's be honest, it's nothing like Obsidian's writing ; - way far from it.
It's cringy to be sure (usually), but not because of it's mass use of creativity (something some disliked with deadfire), but because it's honestly badly written. Fanfictions, I mean. And well...usually....I should know. I read, and even wrote my share of them as a teenager. *pukes*
- Graphics
Think we can all agree on this??:D
- Not bugged too much
I only found 2 really kinda minor, far from game breaking bugs in my whole playthrough.
- Music
Amazing, as always! Though, I did notice some of it was from the previous game? Not that I actually mind this lol.
- Gameplay
A mass improvement over the first game! Though - easier. Something that can be fixed with turning on the difficulty! Twas' a great idea though, not everyone is kin on combat. Some really are just there for the story.
- Advanced Player Setup
And I really loved the abilities such as intimidate, arcane, survival etc....it really added flavour to my own character, as well as the companions! I made sure everything fitted them nicely. ^^
(May have forgot something....?)
- Freedom
Of exploration and of character setup as mentioned above! There's tons of that and I LOVE IT!
- Non-cringy Romance
Loved the feature, and even though my first one didn't go too well; I'll see how the one with Maia is on my next playthrough! (XDDD don't judge!)
Honestly though, really glad this made it in! And super glad you added gay romance in! :D As a ....bisexual who prefers the company of other women, I appreciate it! (XDD)
Nitpickings:
- Ending (Not sliders)
It wasn't a bad ending, but ...I didn't feel like I could do much to alter it? Not being able to fight *spoiler avoider* was a disappointment also....though, I can see why it is the way it is. If i'm 100% honest though? While Deadfire did almost everything better then in the first game...I prefer the first game's endings.
- Ending (Sliders)
I didn't like Xoti's romance ending too much..... :/ I don't think it's the fact that her and my character didn't stay together, it's just....not sure. Something was missing?
- Ship combat
Not my piece of cake. Did not enjoy and wished I could avoid it. :/
- Vela not interactive with player character
Or so I've heard (one of the bugs I mentioned was that I did not get Vela at all, but people told me she only chats with companions so...).
I've been really looking forward to interacting with my ..kinda child? But couldn't so....sad, I guess? ://
- More 'evil' (cruel, aggressive) character would be great
It's too light, and everyone's so nice I can't even dare to be myself! (XDDD)
OVERALL:
Now that I've thought about all of it, i'd give it 9.5. It made it into my top 10 video games list, perhaps even top 5 (or almost?), but it wasn't 100% what I was hyped about; - which is natural.
TBH though, out of all the things I've been SUPER hyped up about 'recently' from biowere and from bethesda was an utter disappointment. Obsidian did not really dissapoint. It gives me hope for future RPGs.
That's all. )